Four Rohingya children were killed in Rakhine, the northern state of Myanmar, in a landmine explosion on Tuesday.
Neither the state nor the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine armed group fighting for more autonomy in the region, have accepted responsibility for the attack.
Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun of Myanmar’s military claimed that five further children were injured in this incident alongside their teacher. The children and teacher had gone to collect firewood for the village of Kyauk Yan when the landmine was accidentally triggered. However, representatives from the Arakan army have accused the military of being responsible for the explosion.
the United Nations Children’s Fund has reported that last year approximately 143 children were killed during the violence across Myanmar’s borders.
Myanmar’s leadership stands accused by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of genocide for violence committed in 2017 when Myanmar’s military conducted a brutal crackdown on dissidents in Rakhine. This violence forced over 730,000 Rohingya Muslims flee to Bangladesh.
Read Reuter’s reporting here.
